Progress Update, Oct 2013

TUESDAY TRUST in Malawi, progress to date in 2013

From the time Tuesday Trust rolled out its activities in the villages of Phaka, Mchoka, Magumbwa, Mtika, Chimoga and Chipoka many lives of women and their families have been transformed. Five groups comprising ten women benefited from farm inputs provided by Tuesday Trust.

These inputs include seeds, fertilizers, chemicals and garden tools such as watering cans. In total twenty (20) gardens were planted with crops like groundnuts, cotton, maize, vegetables and c/peas. Currently these groups have OFSP (orange fleshed sweet potato) gardens with Nursery which they will plant immediately after first rains. So far 9 ha of land were planted with maize, 4 ha with ground nuts, 5 ha with cotton, 1.5 ha with vegetables, 5 ha were planted with c/peas and 0.5 ha is currently planted with OFSP nursery.

A part from the farm inputs that were provided, these women benefited a lot from the various training sessions that were held. These trainings includes gross margin analysis, post harvest loss management, budding and grafting, crops dynamics /organisation, vegetable production, food processing and utilization and OFSP seed multiplication.

Success to date:

Tuesday Trust has successfully provided all the necessary inputs to targeted vulnerable women with an aim of uplifting their lives.

The degree of vulnerability of these women has been reduced.

They have enough food for their families.

With the money realised from the sale of cash crops like cotton and ground nuts, they are able to pay school fees for their kids.

Now these groups are eagerly waiting for nutritious food products of the OFSP. However some women have had poor harvest owing to poor organisational skills of their groups and poor soils and scarcity of water among other factors.